The Blue Nile is not a smart band – in the sense of being clever, shrewd, stylish or, most important, commercially savvy. The Blue Nile is intelligent, which is different. Their debut, A Walk across the Rooftops, is a sneaky album. The music slips between the cracks, an effortless flow of acoustic and electronic sounds with nary a hook in the curiously murky mix. Without the benefit of either a traditional grab-you-by-the-ears pop sensibility or – the usual alternative – bombastic sonic aggression, the Blue Nile courses quietly down its own channel, using subtle and impressionistic melodies and intuitively sprung lyrics to evoke mood and memory. What's required of the listener is patience, not fortitude; this shimmering music is not difficult, just sophisticated.

The Blue Nile is a trio of Glaswegians: Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Moore. Buchanan sings the conversational, romantic songs in a tweedy quaver. The lyrics are rain-swept, melancholy and believable in their use of detailed imagery and emotional clarity. A phrase as trite as "I'm in love" finds its way into at least three of the record's seven pieces and comes off gloriously heartfelt every time. Buchanan has a way with a line like "Stay/And I will understand" that draws one in, trusting every syllable.

Aside from Buchanan on vocals, the members of the Blue Nile have no assigned instruments. Between them, they play guitar, bass, piano, keyboards and percussion. They occasionally use string augmentation, like the pizzicato violins on "A Walk across the Rooftops," which adds a lush sentimentality that might verge on Broadway parody in some other context, but here seems totally right.

The Blue Nile flows across a calm, clean, misty landscape where complex technology is integrated with a palpable emotional component. Their music falls outside the known categories, presenting a seductive world for the receptive. To rely this heavily on the acumen of the pop marketplace might be risky business. But the members of the Blue Nile don't claim to be businessmen. They aren't that smart. (RS 457)

TIM HOLMES